Artist turns director for video of new song

[caption id="attachment_211906" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Local artist Steven 'Joff' Carter in his studio in Baakens valley
Picture: Eugene Coetzee[/caption]

Port Elizabeth graffiti artist Steven Carter, better known as Joff, is also a dab hand behind the movie camera, having recently directed Lucy Kruger’s music video for a new song called Black Spot.

Shooting the video took three days, in the Baakens Valley, where several of Joff’s works are to be seen.

Born in Cape Town, Carter has lived in Port Elizabeth for several years. He said apart from art he had been involved in television production for more than a decade.

A member of local band Cotton Fields, Carter met Kruger through a three-day festival in Mozambique last year when she was part of a band called Medicine Man.

“I chatted to her at the festival about possibly working with her,” Carter said.

“She saw some of my work on a live piece I did for Alice Phoebe Lou and we had a mutual connection of liking each other’s work. “She recorded her album recently and sent me a couple of songs and asked me if I’d be interested in doing something.” Wanting to incorporate his art into his production work, Carter said he took a similar approach to how he went about painting and coming up with a concept.

“She [Kruger] was really trusting. She came down to PE and we shot for three days. Everyone in the crew was from PE,” he said.

“We ended up combining art, music and film to get a feeling across that would compliment her music.

“If you’ve listened to her music before, it’s hauntingly beautiful and you get such as connection and feeling. “I wanted a video which would compliment those feelings with visuals.” He has been directing for four years and mainly works on commercials in a variety of styles.

“Each project is quite different, from working with well-known actors to not well-known, which has enabled me to deal with people of all ranges,” Carter said.

• The music video for Black Spot was released three weeks ago and is viewable on YouTube.